What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that allows you (the Donor) to choose someone now (the Attorney) that you trust to make decisions on your behalf about things such as your property and financial affairs or health and welfare at a time in the future when you no longer wish to make these decisions or you may lack the mental capacity to make those decisions yourself.

The Types of LPA

There are 2 different types of LPA;

1. Health & Welfare LPA – this allows you to stipulate, amongst other things, circumstances where you might not wish to receive life-sustaining treatment and gives authority to your Attorney to put your wishes into effect.
2. Property & Financial Affairs LPA – this gives your Attorney authority to make decisions on your behalf in respect of your financial affairs.

Who can make an LPA?

Anyone aged 18 or over, with the capacity to do so, can make an LPA appointing one or more Attorneys to make decisions on their behalf. You cannot make an LPA jointly with another person; each person must make their own LPA.

People involved in making an LPA

1. The Attorney – this is the person you choose to appoint. It is important that the Attorney agrees to take on this role as they will also need to execute the form.
2. Donor – this is the person making the appointment of an Attorney
3. Named Persons – This is someone chosen by the Donor to be notified when an application is made to register an LPA. They have the right to object to the application if they have concerns about the registration. This is intended as one of the key safeguards to protect you if you make an LPA.
4. Certificate Provider – this is a person the Donor selects to complete Part B of the form and confirm that the Donor understands the LPA and that the Donor is not under any pressure to make it. This is another important safeguard.

The Benefits of making an LPA

An LPA allows you to plan in advance the decisions you want to be made on your behalf when you lose capacity to make them yourself and the people you want to make those decisions for you.
Having an LPA is a safe way of maintaining control over decisions made for you because it has to be registered with The Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used and your Attorneys must follow the Code of Practice of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This stipulates that they must always act in the best interests of the Donor. Furthermore, the main thrust of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is that the Donor should be encouraged to make as many decisions as they can for themselves even where an LPA has been registered.

General Powers of Attorney

Usually, a General Power of Attorney is created for a set period of time in cases where the Donor is going abroad or is unable to act for some other reason and wishes someone else to have the authority to act on their behalf. A General Power will usually end either at a specified time or upon the request of the Donor at any time using a Deed of Revocation.

The key difference between a General Power of Attorney and an LPA is that a General Power will automatically be revoked if the Donor loses mental capacity.